1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a cutting tool for cutting a variety of materials and more particularly for a router or end mill that will remove debris while cutting various materials and clean the cut surface in a single step process.
2. Description of Prior Art
When cutting solid materials with a router or end mill, debris is created due to the cutting action of the cutting tool against the solid material. The debris that is created can clog the cutting tool and slow down the cutting process and leave an unfinished material. A way of both cutting the material and finishing it with relative ease and economy is an issue of concern. The current method of using a router or end mill to cut the material followed by another router or end mill along the same cutting path to finish the material is time and energy consuming as well as expensive because two separate cutting tools are needed.
Cutting tools, such as router or end mills, that are common in the art currently only have one type of cutting or roughing flute such as a knuckle flute, a flat crested flute or a diamond cut flute. The standard proceedure for routing or milling is to employ a roughing cut followed by a finishing cut if the roughing cut has not produced a satisfactory finish. Some examples of cutting tools with flutes directed to a single type (cutting only, no cleaning) are found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,395,167 for a "Router Especially For Use As A Fiber-Metal Cutter" issued to Maternus, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,193,944 and 5,221,163 both for a "Nicked Cutting Tool" to Nishimura, U.S. Pat. No. 4,810,136 for a "Milling Cutter for Composite Laminates" to Paige and U.S. Pat. No. 3,058,199 for a "Cutting Tool" to Cave et al.
Standard in the art are cutting tools with consistent diameters at both the shank end and the cutting end. That is, the body of the cutting tool is cylindrical in shape and the diameter of the cutting tool at the shank end is equal to the diameter of the cutting tool at the cutting end. However, it is possible to change the diameter of the cutting tool, for example, taper the cutting end to a smaller diameter than at the shank end. This tapered shape is used in conjunction with flutes all of the same type, i.e. all knuckle flutes, and is also known in the art. Therefore, a variation of the cutting tool with only cutting type flutes, as previously described, is found in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,188,488 for an "End Mill" to Nakayama et al. wherein the overall shape of the body of the cutting tool tapers at the cutting end. This device is used for cutting purposes and not finishing purposes. If this tool is used, a finishing tool is also needed to finish the cut material.
There are also cutting tools that combine cutting flutes with reamer flutes such as found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,507,028 for a "Combined Drill and Reamer" issued to Matsushita. However, in the Matsushita patent, the cutting flutes are located at the cutting end of the cutting tool and then the reamer flutes are adjacent thereto or further along on the body of the cutting tool. The two different types of flutes, cutting and reamer, do not exist in a side-by-side fashion where both are used simultaneously and both extend the same length down the cutting tool. Also, a finishing tool is still needed for finishing work when this device is used While the above stated devices are a fair representation of the current prior art, there remains room for improvement as defined by the currently claimed invention.